


Randus and Smith break into Thony's house and take apart his stuff

by Domoz



Category: Critical Hit (Podcast)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-29
Updated: 2014-06-30
Packaged: 2018-02-06 17:06:13
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,169
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1865676
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Domoz/pseuds/Domoz
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>fic prompt: After the fuse smith lives, but goes blind and looses all feeling.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Straight out of the fuse, you weren't able to tell. With all the other wounds you hadn't even thought to check his eyes.

You don't find out until he wakes up- thank the gods he woke up at all- and opens his eyes. What's there is something not at all like the brown eyes you remembered.

 

The Thing that Shattered the Sky did more than scar his chest and hands, but took his sight, too. When you check on him a few days after he's sitting up straight, white knuckled grip on the blanket, eyes open but not looking at anything at all.

 

It takes you saying his name before he looks up, not at you, but towards you, at least. Your breath catches in your throat and his in his own and there's a long moment of silence before he says, “Randus?”

 

There's an edge to his voice that's either sadness or fear and you can't tell which.

You say, “Y-yeah. I'm here”

 

He says, “I'm blind”

You say, “But you're alive”

 

(He asks, “Is it permanent?”

You say, “I don't know”)

-

He doesn't leave that room for a long time, when he walks its with one hand on the wall and the other out in front. When he walks he goes slowly and stops often.

 

You tell him about the fight, about the Thing that came out of him and about how you beat a god

(And about how you're sorry for asking him to climb in there)

 

He runs his fingers through his hair, says, “Good, good”

 

He's gotten in the habit of closing his eyes when he's not talking. And for a while he sits there in silence.

 

Then he sighs.

He says to you, “I don't know what I'm gonna do.”

 

He can't smith anymore, not like this, and whatever magic was in him before left with the Thing. You don't know, either.

-

 

The next few days are spent mostly fending off more lunar monsters and repairing the Exilarchy. Arkabus says that you're making good time, and should be able to get back home before the end of the month, at the rate you're going. You spend a lot of time down with those scientists trying to get the time pushed closer to the end of the  _week._

 

You don't know how long you'll be able to survive on Exilarchy food.

 

Smith  _does_ get out of that room. He tries as hard as he can to make himself useful, which at this point involves mainly carrying heavy things while someone else directs him.

 

The cogs try to console him, in their way. They tell him that many cogs are built without ocular sensors at all and are still perfectly functional. The smile he gives back is weak, at best, but it's the first you've seen since he's woken up.

-

You're not sure quite how long you were working for- or if time even moves the same way on the moon, really. But signs are hopeful that you'll be leaving soon; you were told probably after just a few more human sleep cycles you'd be all set to return to home, and you certainly feel like you could use a nap to pass that time.

 

So you go into the room you've been sharing with Smith (It's not made for two people, but you sleep in your bedroll on the floor. Neither of you have mentioned it but both of you know why you're there)

 

He's lying in bed with his hand in front of face, alternately balling it into a fist and relaxing it.

 

You watch this for a moment or two, then say

“Is everything alright?”

 

He sighs, says, “Besides the obvious problem? I'm fine. My hands have fallen asleep, is all”

 

You say, “We're supposed to be going home, soon”

He rolls over so he's facing the wall, yawns, “Finally”

 

And that's that.

-

You guess you slept longer than you meant to, because you wake up to a lot of shaking and rumbling that feels suspiciously like what happened when you came  _to_  the moon.

 

Smith has his arm over his face and you can't even stand up for all the shaking. You're resigned to lying on the floor until it stops. Which, after a few minutes, it does.

 

You stand up as Smith flops back over to face you. He says, “Was that it? Are we home?”

You say, “I think so”

 

He stands up and puts his hand on the wall- then lowers it as you move to put your hand on his elbow.

(You've been doing this too, without saying a word and he always bows his head and lets you.)

 

And when you get outside the sun is high and they sky is blue and you know that you're  _home._

The breeze still smells like metal and oil but it smells like soil and flowers, too.

 

Smith takes a deep breath in and sighs it out.

You look at him, ask him, “What now?”

 

The way he's standing there with his eyes closed you could almost forget everything that's happened. Then he opens them. Says, “I don't know”

-

What he decides to do is go back to Diamondthrone, to visit his family, assuming they're still there.

 

He says he'll get there on his own- the Exilarchy planned to send an envoy to the capital and they've already agreed to let him travel with them and that no really he'll be fine. But that idea leaves a sick feeling in the pit of your stomach- and you didn't have any plans for now, anyways.

 

When he announces it you're quick to say, “I'll go with you”

And when he furrows his brow you're also fast to add, “I-I mean, I meant to go and grab some of Thony's plans, anyways. If you want the company”

 

(Thony himself wants to stay in the Exilarchy. He said that now they're out in the open there's somuch more he can learn)

 

He nods, and that's that.

-

 

The cogs travel fast and the two of you are hard pressed to keep up with them. By the end of every day you're both exhausted- and you have to actually _convince_ them to let you rest and even then its only for a minimal amount of time.

 

Those six hours may be some of the hardest you've ever slept.

 

But aside from the pace the travel is relatively easy going, you don't run into any brigands and any lunar monsters you see are in small enough groups that they scatter at your coming rather than attacking. Around noon one day you see Diamondthrone on the horizon.

 

You tell Smith so. He bites his lip and asks, “How does it look?”

You hesitate. You say, “I … it hasn't been destroyed, if that's what you're asking.”

He nods.

 

You've taken to leading him by the hand, now. It's easier.

He's been holding the other one in a fist for nearly the whole day- you asked, and he said, “It's just fallen asleep, again”

But he doesn't seen concerned, so you let it go.

-

The first thing you do once you get to city is break off from the cogs to try to find Smith's family.

He's decent at giving directions from memory, you're not so decent at following them.

(“If we're entering from the east gate,” he says, “Then first we should go two streets down...”

 

You get hopelessly lost, because among other things some of the streets he's telling you to go down don't even exist anymore. You end up having to get assistant to lead you to Thony's house instead.

 

It's nearly sundown by the time you get there.

(You apologized the whole way. Smith just said, “Its fine. _It's fine”)_

You say, “You think Thony will mind if we sleep here?”

He shrugs.

 

You don't think he would.

-

Thony apparently sleeps on a pile of sheets shoved between two huge constructs he had been working on- building or taking apart you couldn’t say. So you put out bedrolls, then say, “I'll see what there is to eat”

 

Which isn't much. You're not sure if Thony actually eats at all which leaves you fiddling with some of your own trail rations and some very advanced looking cookware.

 

As you fiddle with the knobs you also watch Smith out of the corner of your eye,exploring the room in the only way he has left.

Except, he's not so much running his hands over things now as  _though_ them. You watch as he gives himself a huge cut on the palm without even reacting.

Maybe you  _should_  have been worried.

 

So you abandon the stove-top – all you'd managed to do so far is burn some granola to a crisp, anyways.

 

You wouldn't say you rush over, exactly, but you make enough noise for Smith to turn towards you.

You ask, “Are you alright?”

He snorts.

“Quite a question”

(He's bitter about it. You guess you would be, too)

 

“No I mean- I mean your hand”

He says, “What, what about it?”

 

There's blood dripping from it pretty heavily now and he's let it drop to his side, relaxed like there's nothing wrong.

 

You grab it, already pulling out bandages and other things.

Smith is saying, “What. What's happening?!”

 

You make yourself pause. And then very gently prod at the wound. You ask, “Do you feel that?”

You can hear the frustration when he says, “Feel  _what?”_

 

And you tell him that he's cut his hand open. You squeeze his other hand and he says no, he can't feel it. He says that the whole rest of his arms kind of feel like they've fallen asleep, now.

You say, “That's not good”

He says, “You  _think?”_

 

And for a long moment there's a look of anguish on his face worse than anything you saw on the moon. Then he lets you lead him back to where the bedrolls are and wrap his hand.

He says, “I've lost my appetite”

 

You have, too.

-

You didn't really get much sleep, and you don't think he did either but eventually the sun rises.

You say, “You want to try again, today?”

He says, “Might as well”

That edge from before is back, with much more sadness then fear, now. It makes your heart twist just to hear it.

 

So you help him up and start the walk again- now more by the shoulder then the hand. He doesn't try to give directions this time, he just tells you, “It was on the corner of Gleam Street and Narrow Road”

 

It's much easier to find this time because its only a few blocks away and you asked another man,one who you guess has lived here since the lunar event, for directions.

 

And when you get there what you see is a load of scaffolding down the whole street and a lot of wreckage.

You tell him so. And then you add, “Though that doesn't mean anything! Just that that this place got hit, was all. I'm sure your family is fine. “

 

Your voice wavers, and his does too when he says, “Right”

 

You go back to Thony's place without another word between you. He sits down back on his bedroll and pulls his knees to his chest and puts his head down on them.

 

Then he says, “The feeling- the tingling one that feels like somethings falling asleep- is how my whole chest feels now. You think it's dangerous?”

 

You say, “I don't know”

 

Mostly what you think is that you need to do something about this.

-

You're trying  _so hard_  to do something about this. The theories you have are few and nonsensical and Smith is very near inconsolable at this point. He doesn't like to talk about it- or anything, really. He doesn't like to do much anymore except sit up on Thony's balcony in the sun and listen to the city go by.

 

Which you suppose is the best thing he could be doing right now, given everying.

 

Your working theory is that there's too much void energy left over in him after the fuse. You're hoping maybe, if there's some way to get it out he'll get his feeling back, or at least not loose any more.

 

There's some hazy ideas forming of what you're going to have to do- which of Thony's things you're going to have to tear apart and what you're going to have to make yourself and  _will this kill him? Will it even be worth it?_

 

You've told him a few times already now that you're going to try your hardest to fix this, and he's said “Thank you” with that edge to his voice that you're afraid won't come off until you do.

-

You find them kind of out of the blue.

 

You had being searching through some of Thony's blueprints- trying to make sure that  _yes, this part is what you think it is_ when you found it.

 

They're plans for a sort of replacement eyes, built like a cogs but looking like a humans and drawn on a sheet that was crumpled between designs for ornithopters. It looks old, kind of crude compared to his other stuff, but you think you could refine it.

 

You think you can fix Smith's eyes.

 

You go and tell him so- you get ahead of yourself and only realize it when he says, “Wait, wait. Slow down”

You say, “I think I'll be able to get you your sight back”

 

The breath he takes is the most hopeful noise you've heard from him in a long long time.

 

He says, “Really?”

(The thing that  _really_ hurts is that he doesn’t even realize he's crying)

-

You suddenly have a lot of projects in front of you- the eyes are surprisingly simple, although you're afraid you might have to change them on the spot when it comes time.

The other thing- this kind of terrifying looking machine- is a lot harder for you to figure out. You're more of less having to reverse engineer it from what you remember from the towers and the fuse and everything you know about void magic.

 

It's slow going- and besides that you're also trying extra hard to remember to eat- not just for your sake but for Smith's, too. You go through your rations pretty quickly and mostly start relying on street food.

 

Smith will smile grimly and say, “I haven't lost my sense of taste yet, but I kind of wish I had”

 

OK so the meat was questionable. But it doesn't taste  _that_ bad.

-

You give Smith updates one what you're doing as much as you can. Whenever you take a break you go up to that balcony and tell him what you were doing and he really does  _try_  to listen to the technical parts of it.

 

The question he keeps asking is, “Will it kill me?”

The answer you keep giving is, “I don't know”

-

It's evening when you deem it done.

 

By the time you've finished Smith has lost all feeling, and doesn't even react when you kneel down next to him and put a hand on his shoulder.

 

You say, “I'm still not sure how dangerous this is going to be”

He says, “It couldn’t be any more dangerous than what started this mess. Let's do this”

“Now?”

“Now”

 

Not that you could blame him for wanting to do it as soon as possible- but you're nervous.

 

You explain how it might not even get his sense of touch back.

He says, “But there  _is_  a chance that it might”

You say, “There is”

“Then I'm doing it”

 

And then you say that , while he's out from that he's also going to try and give him his eyes back.

Smith nods, and swallows, and says, “Do it”

-

Knocking him out is the easiest part- after it comes a lot of needles and hookups and some horrifying chugging from your machine. You take solace in the fact that at least he can't feel it, because it looks like it hurts.

 

Then the eyes. You have assistant, and you're robotic hand is as steady as it's ever been.

(Your real one, not so much)

 

As you expected you had to change the eyes on the spot.

Though Smith's eyes weren't as bad as you thought- it's not even a full replacement and you're hopefull that that, at least, will work.

-

Then, eventually the machine chugs down to a soft hum. Smith is still breathing and there's bandages over his eyes and you pull out all your needles and widgets and move him over to his bedroll.

(He's lost weight, you realize. You don't even really have to struggle to lift him)

 

 

All that's left to do now is wait for him to wake up.

 


	2. Chapter 2

The first thing there is a stinging in your back- then there’s a thousand little pin pricks in your shoulders in arms and then, the realization that you’re awake, or at least waking up.

You realize sort of slowly that there’s something under you, under you hands and as you feel around you think,  _oh, it’s just the floor._

And then, quite suddenly, you’re ready to cry because you’re lying on a bedroll on a wooden floor that’s slightly covered in soot, or maybe charcoal and you can feel every bump of it under your fingers.

It sort of all hits you at once- even the  _air_  has feeling to it, even though it’s not moving, and there’s something wrapped around your head, too and oh right, oh _right, you’re probably going to get to see again, too_ and then all the sudden it’s all you can do to keep taking deep breaths and not go a little bit hysterical.

You just breath, and even your own _lungs_  feel alien, your skin feels heavy on your bones and it feels like you can’t fit your tongue in your skull and it’s all so strange. You try not to panic, you tell yourself that you’ve done it all before- felt things - even it it’s what feels like ages ago.

The grain of the wood feels hard on your hands as you push yourself up till you’re sitting, then onto your knees because you’re touching less, that way. Then you go quiet. You listen like you have been ever since this all started and hear, among other things a deep breathing that you recognize as Randus- the snore he has when he’s worried about something and not sleeping so deeply.

(You don’t think it’s strange at all that you’re able to tell so much from that- you’ve done hardly anything but sit still and listen since you cut open your hand)

You clear your throat- which kind of hurts because- now you realize, too- you’re thirsty.

You say, “Randus?”

It’s a lot louder and a lot more ragged than you wanted it to sound, but it’s enough to get snorts and shocked noises from him.

You give him a moment- finding that it’s strangely harder to focus on listening to him moving when you also have the pressure of your own weight on your knees to consider.

But then very clearly you hear him sort of gasp and breath in at the same time, hear him say, “Smith? Are you- can you-” and then hear the rustling of all his leather get louder as he moves towards you.

And then there’s a coldness on one hand and a warmness on the other and your hands and lifted up by what you can tell are his and he says, voice all hope, “Can you feel that?”

You can practically feel his fingerprints and the little nicks in his metal hand. You’re hardly managing to choke back tears when you say, “Yeah”

Your voice breaks at the end, and then quite suddenly Randus has pulled you into a hug and you quite happily plant your face into the scratchy wool of his jacket.

You’re not crying just yet but you can’t stop the few sobs that come out. You’re happy, you’re so , so happy because you’re life isn’t as ruined as you’ve been convinced all this time and because your face is starting to itch from the wool and because you can feel the rumbling in Randus’s chest as he talks.

He’s saying a thousand things you’ve heard before, how he’s so, so sorry for asking you to climb in there in the first place, for taking your sight from you and for everything else. You find that you’re shivering, even though you don’t think it’s cold at all.

You say, “Stop” and your voice doesn’t even wobble like you expected.

Oh, truth be told you were bitter about it, especially at the beginning and more than anything once you lost the feeling of the ground on your feet.

And then he talked to you- every day he would talk to you about something he was doing to fix what happened and you started to have serious doubts on if he was doing anything else at all but trying to help you. And every day you listened and started to hear the edge of guilt to his voice. And you thought about the fuse and the god that apparently came out of you and started to wonder if maybe it couldn’t have been done another way after all, and ended the way it had.

And then you listened to Randus constantly apologize and blame himself for something that you were starting to think of as less and less as anyone’s fault- you had a lot of time to think- and you listened to him do nothing by try to help _you,_ and blame himself for what a lunar god did _._ And it did something to you. It twisted your guts in ways you weren’t proud of.

Randus lets you go, backs away. You reach out till you find the cold metal of his hand and hold it between yours. You say, “Stop apologizing”

You say, “The void is the one who caused all this. And you’re the one who fixed it. Thank you.”

Based on what you’re hearing you’d guess that he’s trying not to cry and failing.

So you both sit for a long while, your face is back in his coat and you stay like that until the temperature of his hand starts to match your own and your knees start aching.

Then you say, “What about my eyes?”

You find that you’re not even so exited about seeing, so much as you are getting the tightness from around your face.

He says, “Uh”

He says, “If everything went right then you should already be fine, though it would be safer to wait a few days…”

You grunt- more a rumble in your throat than it is a noise. You say, “Is there any way to get the bandages”- that’s what you assume the feeling is- “off, at least?”

There’s a moment of silence between you, then you let slip a quiet , “oh” as Randus puts his hand on the side of your face and starts unwrapping them.

Not what you meant, but the pressure is less, already.

And already too, there’s color- the red behind your eyelids when you close them in the light. Then the feeling of linen being dropped in your lap and your heart is in your throat because after going for so long without touch or sight having it all back at once seems like too much.

But Randus says, “Well?” and you open your eyes despite it all.

He’s there, he looks tired and like he’s been crying and he hasn’t shaved in too long but he’s smiling and you can’t stop yourself from smiling, too, even though it hurts.

Then you catch something else in the corner of your eye- it’s your own reflection, warped as it is in polished bras. You look too small, and like you need to bathe and shave and cut your hair.

Though, you decide, the important thing is that you look, at all.

It’s you who hugs Randus this time, him who says, “Oh” and then hugs you back.

(You close your eyes because it is, really, a bit too much).

You don’t know how long it takes before you pull away from each other and you open your eyes again.

You bite your lip but before you can think of something to say you hear something strange and feel something stranger from your stomach.

Randus chuckles- sincerely and not the sad one you’re used too. He says, “Hungry?”

You nod because you are, you realize , very very hungry.

He stands up, reaches a hand down for you,saying all the while, “I’ve found this place that prides itself on serving real meat, if you’re up for it?”

You take his hand and with his help pull yourself on to your feet and say, “I’m up for anything.”


End file.
